Asparagus and Friends Part 3: Asparagus, Mushrooms, and Gruyere

I actually began to write this post several weeks ago, but never got round to finishing it. Anyways: part 3 of the "stuff to do with asparagus" trio is of course, none other than the classic asparagus gruyere and mushroom quiche. This recipe comes from one of my favorite (Toronto based!) food blogs: Closet Cooking.

I cheated on the crust, and used a frozen crust instead of making my own and substituted leeks for ramps, since that was what was idling in the fridge. I also supplemented my morels with shitakes (because $20.00/lb was a bit out of my price range). Overall though, this makes a damn fine quiche. The gruyere is a must. Don't skimp on that.

DSCN0203.JPG, originally uploaded by CaitKP.

Asparagus Morel (or Shitake) and Ramp (or Leek) Quiche

(makes 6 servings)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
Crust:
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/4 cup gruyere (grated)
1 egg
-or-
1 frozen pie crust from the store

Quiche:
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup gruyere (grated)
1/2 pound morel mushrooms
1/2 pound asparagus (cut into 1-inch long pieces and steamed)
3 ramps (chopped)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
To make the crust:
1. Mix the rice, cheese and egg in a bowl.
2. Press the rice mixture into a pie plate, about 1/4 inch thick.
3. Bake in a preheated 450F oven until the edges and bottom just start turning golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.

To make the quiche:
4. Mix the eggs, milk, cheese, mushrooms, asparagus and ramps in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
5. Pour the egg mixture into the pie crust.
6. Bake in a preheated 375F oven until golden brown and set in the center, about 30-35 minutes.

Asparagus and Friends Part 2: Asparagus on the Grill

Grilling asparagus may sound like a rather tedious process, and indeed, if you're not big on grilling, a similar effect can be achieved by tossing it with some olive oil in a baking pan and popping it under the broiler for a few minutes. However, if you're already BBQ-ing, as we were, it seems a shame to go to all the fuss and bother of heating up the oven.

The biggest hazard when it comes to grilling asparagus is that it has a terrible tendency to slip through the grate on the grill, at which point it is no longer edible, *and* you have to disassemble the BBQ to extract it. However, on this particular evening, I had a flash of brilliance of Fine-Cooking-Tips-and-Tricks proportions: I took the fish-grilling basket, and chucked the asparagus in there, closed it up and put it on the grill. It worked perfectly. There was no asparagus-spear herding with the tongs or the spatula, just flip it over a couple times while your other grillables are cooking and there you have it: grilled asparagus, no fuss, no bother, no grill pan.

A word of warning though (well, 2 actually). I failed to toss my spears with salt and olive oil before grilling (I was *that* lazy), which probably would have made for a tastier result (we were doing Asian style chicken thighs with the asparagus, so I drizzled it with a soy-and-hoisin sauce, which basically had the same effect. Also, I recommend not stuffing *too* much asparagus into the fish-basket. Ideally you want each spear to be expose to the flame on at least one side (so 2 layers of asparagus at most), otherwise the ones in the center don't cook very well.

Grilled Asparagus Spears and Five-Spice Chicken Thighs with Soy-Vinegar Sauce & Cilantro

The chicken thighs are from The Wonder Issue of Fine Cooking. The ingredient list is nothing special, but somehow this is one of the most Asian-tasting recipes for Asian style chicken I've ever tried (and, its a mix, marinade and grill sort of thing, which makes it that much better).

DSCN0191.JPG, originally uploaded by CaitKP.

Servings: Serves four to six (and great as left-overs).

Ingredients
2 tablespoons Chinese five-spice powder
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2-1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 8 large, 10 medium, or 12 small), trimmed of excess fat
2 tablespoons vegetable oil; more for the grill
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Directions
1. Mix the five-spice powder, the 1 tablespoon sugar, the garlic powder, and the salt in a small bowl. In another bowl, mix the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, and remaining 1 teaspoon sugar.
2. Put the chicken in a shallow pan, drizzle with the vegetable oil, and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle the spice mixture over the chicken; toss and rub to coat thoroughly.
3. Prepare a hot charcoal fire or heat a gas grill with all burners on medium high for 10 minutes. Clean the hot grate with a wire brush and then lubricate it with an oil-soaked paper towel. Put the chicken on the grate and grill (covered on a gas grill or uncovered over a charcoal fire) until one side has dark grill marks, 5 to 6 minutes for large thighs or 4 to 5 minutes for medium and small thighs. Turn and continue to grill until well marked on the other sides and cooked through, 5 to 6 minutes longer for large thighs or 4 to 5 minutes for medium and small thighs.
4. Move the thighs to a serving dish. Drizzle with about half of the soy mixture, sprinkle with the cilantro, and toss to coat. Let rest 4 to 5 minutes, tossing once or twice. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature, with the remaining soy mixture passed at the table.


Asparagus

Ingredients:
1 lb asparagus spears
Salt
Olive Oil

Optional:
1 tbsp hoisin sauce,
1 tsp soy sauce

Toss the spears with salt and olive oil, place in a fish grilling basket, and grill along side the chicken, if you want, you can drizzle it with the soy/hoisin mix afterwards.

Asparagus and Friends Part 1: Asparagus and Smoked Salmon

The past few weeks here in Seattle have been the glory days of asparagus. With little else in season yet (besides rhubarb), it is very difficult to pass up the tender, green asparagus spears appearing everywhere from the grocery store to the market to the produce bin. As the asparagus season winds down, or rather, everything else heats up, I thought I'd share some of the asparagus adventures we've had.

Asparagus with Smoked Salmon Ravioli in a Rose Sauce

Really, the asparagus was just a side dish here, we didn't do anything fancy to it, just popped it in salted water to boil for a couple minutes before draining it and serving alongside the ravioli. But thats part of the beauty of fresh asparagus: smetimes the best thing to do with it is absolutely nothing. Cook it in the simplest possible way, and serve it (don't worry -- we did more interesting things with it too).

DSCN0190.JPG, originally uploaded by CaitKP.

This recipe is adapted from here. We used smoked salmon ravioli, which we had bought at the market with the asparagus, however, if you can't find that, probably penne with some chunks of smoked salmon thrown in would work well too.

This recipe made about twice as much sauce as

Ingredients

Pasta:
1/2 lb Smoked salmon ravioli
OR
1/2 lb penne and 1/2 cup smoked salmon

Sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1 small finely diced onion
1/2 cup diced smoked salmon (if not using ravioli)
2 fluid ounces vodka (or any liquor: we had no vodka and instead used brandy)
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup crushed tomatoes
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Asparagus:
1/2 lb fresh asparagus rinsed and stemmed

Directions

1. In a large saucepan saute butter and onion with smoked salmon (if using). Once the pan begins to lightly smoke, pull saucepan away from heat source and add the Vodka (or other liquor).
2. When the Vodka has burned off, return the sauce to heat source and mix in the crushed tomatoes and heavy cream (you can tweak the cream to tomato ratio here depending on personal preferences).
3. Season sauce with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and red pepper flakes. Reduce sauce to desired consistency; serve.

As for the asparagus, the prep is pretty easy, but the key is timing. It may seem difficult to mess up a simple side like boiled (or steamed) asparagus, but believe me, I've done it. Put the asparagus in to early, and it either ends up limp and overcooked (if you leave it in too long), or worse yet, cold (if you take it out to early). For this recipe, I put a pot of water up to boil for the asparagus at the same time I put up the water for the pasta. Since both ravioli and asparagus cook very quicky, I waited until the sauce was mostly done (in the reducing stage) and put the pasta and aspargus in then. I kept an eye on both, and as soon as the asparagus was done (usually no longer than 5 minutes if the water is boiling when you put it in), drained it, put it back in the pot, and covered it (to keep it warm). Then I drained the ravioli, assembled, and served.

Baked Pasta Part 2

Maybe it's the fact that its summer and we're all craving tomatoes, or maybe it's that biking 10 miles a day without collapsing requires some serious carbo-loading, or maybe its just the result of acquiring 2 new Italian cookbooks within a few weeks of one another, but as of late we seem to be spending an awful lot of time in pasta-territory. Be it drunken pasta, or old favorites, tonight was no exception.

Having tried Jamie Oliver's baked pasta, last week (a lovely simple chez-piggy-in-a-casserole-dish sort of fare), we decided to try David Rocco's this week. David Rocco's baked pasta is more guy-food: tomatoes, tonnes of cheese (including smoked mozzarella or scamorza if you can find it), sun-dried tomatoes, more tomatoes, olives, crushed red peppers, and eggplant make it a hearty stick-to-your ribs sort of meal (so it's not surprising that it would be Dan's top choice after a day of running errands and biking):

PASTA AL FORNO

Baked Pasta Part 2 (with salad(s)), originally uploaded by CaitKP.

Ingredients

1 lb rigatoni pasta (450g) (we actually used whole wheat penne rigatoni -- which worked pretty well)
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (60ml)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large eggplant, cubed
15 infornate olives, pitted and chopped (I used black semi-dried)
10 large sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
2 dried chili pepper, crushed (optional, but strongly recommended)
1 jar of tomato puree (750ml)
0.8lb freshly grated mozzarella (400g)
smoked scamorza cheese, as much as desired, roughly chopped (we couldn't find this, so instead used 1/2 lb plain mozzarella (grated) and 1/2 lb smoked mozzarella (chopped into chunks) which worked quite well),
freshly grated parmigiano cheese for sprinkling
salt to taste

To start your Pasta al Forno:


Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

While the rigatoni cooks in salted boiling water, prepare the sauce. In a saucepan heat up olive oil and sautí garlic, eggplant, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and chili peppers for a few minutes. Add tomato puree and salt. Let cook for approximately 10 minutes on medium heat.

Lightly oil a large (8x12") baking dish, set aside. Drain rigatoni, and mix with sauce in a large bowl. Add the mozzarella and smoked scamorza (or smoked mozzarella)--the cheese will start to melt as soon as you add it, so you have to be a bit quick here--mix just long enough to get the cheese well-distributed throughout the mix (30 sec. tops, otherwise all the cheese will melt and end up in one large blob on your spoon). Now pour the whole mixture into the baking dish, sprinkle with parmesean, and pop it in the oven.

Alternatively, you can do the layering thing: drain the pasta, add to the saucepan with the sauce, sprinkle with some parmigiano and cook for another 30 seconds. Place half the rigatoni in a baking dish, adding a layer of half of the mozzarella, half of the scamorza and another sprinkle of parmigiano cheese over the pasta.Add the remaining rigatoni, and follow with a final layer of all the cheeses.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Per 4 persone (again: 4 ravenously hunrgy young males--this is a lot of pasta).

Sunday Night Salad: One Day Early

There are certain food combinations that never occur to you until you begin cooking with the male of the species. Pasta with a side of potato salad is one of them. However, after a day of biking and a serious potato surplus, and a killer potato salad recipe, it seemed acceptable.

I have never been a big potato salad person. Potatoes, unless they're really nice fresh potatoes, have always tasted dull and starchy to me, and the idea of dousing them in mayo and topping them with bacon to make them more interesting seemed to just make the whole dish even heavier, hardly the desired effect of a summer salad meant to go with things like burgers and grilled sausages. At any rate, up until recently I was pretty strongly anti-potato salad. Then Jamie showed me the secret, or rather, he showed Dan the secret, and Dan converted me. A word of warning: this recipe, from Jamie Oliver's new Jamie's Food Revolution (aka Ministry of Food),

The Secret of Good Potato Salad

Jamie's Potato Salad (R)evolution, originally uploaded by CaitKP.

Ingredients:
1¾ Pounds Baby Potatoes (or any good quality potato: we used 3 red and 3 white from the produce bin)
6 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
Fresh Chives (I throw in dill or fennel tops too)
1 Lemon, zest
¼ Cup Natural Yogurt
Smoked Bacon (I like to use pancetta)

Cook Potatoes: Bring a pan of salted water to a boil. Peel the potatoes, chopping large ones in half (or chop into 1" cubes if using larger potatoes). Leave the small potatoes whole. When the water is boiling, add the potatoes to the pan and bring back to a boil for about 10 to 15 minutes. While they're cooking, in a small pan, over medium heat, cook slices of smoked bacon (or pancetta bits) in a splash of extra virgin olive oil, set aside on a paper towel to drain excess oil when done. Test potatoes with a knife to make sure they are cooked through. Drain the potatoes and place them in a medium bowl.

Dress Potatoes: Mix the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, and fresh black pepper. Stir well. Toss the hot potatoes in the dressing (Jamie says it's important to do this while the potatoes are still hot, to get the texture of the sauce right). Finely chop fresh chives (and any other herbs you're using) and sprinkle them over the potatoes. Toss the potato salad with the zest of 1 lemon and ¼ cup natural yogurt. Next, crumble cooked bacon or pancetta on top and serve.

Wheels, more wheels, fenders...food therapy

Some ailments can only be treated by copious amounts of theraputic food. Used car shopping is one of them. So is putting fenders on bikes. We did both this weekend and exhausted, sore and exasperated, found ourselves in need of some major food therapy.

For my money, there's nothing more theraputic than tomato-based pasta sauces. Plop the whole lot in a baking dish with alternating layers of basil, freshly grated parmesean and gorgeous, salty fresh mozzarella and chuck it in the oven, and you've got all the requirements of theraputic food: richness (parmesian), gooeyness (mozz), a hint of spice (crushed red chiles in the tomatoes) etc. As far as I can tell, and Jamie Oliver's explanation seems to agree, this is the Italian version of mac 'n cheese, which is about as comfort-food-ish as you can get. It also makes a refreshing lunch when eaten cold.

Its really dead simple to make (we wussed out and did not put equal parts mozz and pasta into the mix, instead we used one large ball of fresh mozz, about 1/2 lb. the dish could probably do with a little more, but was certainly not bad with only this much). I couldn't find the orecchiette either (next time I see it, I'm just going to buy it, because it is never there when I am looking specifically for it), I used large-ish bow ties instead, and they worked quite well. I think the real key is the quality of the pasta, rather than the shape...although noodles might be weird.

baked pasta with tomatoes and mozzarella (pasta al forno con pomodori e mozzarella)

Baked Pasta Part 1, originally uploaded by CaitKP.

Servings: Jamie claims it feeds 4. By 4 he means 4 ravenously hungry 21 yr old males. So far it has served us for 2 dinners, and 4 lunches, and probably has about 2 more servings left to go.

Ingredients:
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 white onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• 1 or 2 dried red chillies, crumbled
• 1.5kg ripe tomatoes or 3 x 400g tins of good-quality plum tomatoes (due to the fact that it is June and we don't live in Italy, we used canned)
• a large handful of fresh basil leaves
• optional: 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 400g dried orecchiette
• 4 big handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 x 150g balls of mozzarella

Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6 and put a large pot of salted water on to boil. To an appropriately sized pan add a couple of lugs of good extra virgin olive oil, your onion, garlic and chilli and slowly fry for about 10 minutes on a medium to low heat until softened but without any colour. If you’re using fresh tomatoes, remove the core with the tip of a small knife, plunge them into the boiling water for about 40 seconds until their skin starts to come away, then remove with a slotted spoon or sieve and remove the pan from the heat.

Put the tomatoes into a bowl and run cold water over them, then slide the skins off, squeeze out the pips and roughly chop. Add your fresh or tinned tomatoes to the onion and garlic, with a small glass of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes. Now put them through a food processor or liquidizer to make a loose sauce. Tear your basil leaves into the sauce and correct the seasoning with salt, pepper and a little swig of red wine vinegar.

When the liquidized sauce tastes perfect, bring the water back to the boil. Add the orecchiette to the water and cook according to the packet instructions, then drain and toss with half of the tomato sauce and a handful of Parmesan. Get yourself an appropriately sized baking tray, pan or earthenware dish and rub it with a little olive oil. Layer a little pasta in the tray, followed by some tomato sauce, a handful of grated Parmesan and 1 sliced-up mozzarella ball, then repeat these layers until you’ve used all the ingredients, ending with a good layer of cheese on top. Pop it into the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden, crisp and bubbling.

Pics to come.

Bikes and Beer in Portland OR

We decided to take a break from cooking this weekend and instead go on an adventure in Portland, Oregon. Rather than driving everywhere, or dealing with Portland's better-than-Seattle-but-still-far-from-optimal trolley system, we decided to explore the city by bike (which has the added advantage of working up quite an appetite).

We rented our bikes first thing sunday morning, and rode off to begin our day at Doug Fir Lounge, one of Portland's best brunches according to ChowHound. We were not disappointed. I had a delicious scramble with sharp cheddar, onions, delicious potatoes and more ham than you could shake a stick at, and Dan had a vegetable hash, with spinach, zucchini, tomatoes and perfectly poached eggs on top, and of course, bottomless coffee. Convenienly, Doug Fir lounge is located in the Hawthorne neighborhood, which is a lovely area to wander in while you're trying to digest brunch enough so that you can get back on your bike and ride without cramping up. While wandering, we found a myriad of cool second hand stores, including Next Adventure, which has a basement full of affordable, if pre-loved, sporting gear (we found a helmet for Dan and biking shoes for me).

We rode about exploring various neighborhoods for the better part of the afternoon, and having missed lunch (brunch was fashionably late, since most brunch joints in Portland serve brunch until 3pm or later on weekends), decided an afternoon pint was in order. I did not realize until now how much I missed bike-friendly cities (Portland is supposedly second only to Montreal in terms of bikeable North American cities). At any rate, what caused me to remember was the sight of rows and rows of bike racks (mostly full) outside of New Old Lompoc microbrewpub. Somehow it just seemed much more inviting than the expanses of parking lot that tend to surround everything in Seattle. We found an open rack and headed in. Since it was late afternoon and we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we went easy on the beer, ordering only a sampler to share. While all of Lompoc's beers were quite nice (their light beers had that lovely refreshing "cottage" taste to them), the winners were definitely the hoppier options. Both the Imperial Pale Ale C-note, and its lighter cousin Centenial, the India Pale Ale had a lovely full hoppiness about them that stood up fine on its own, but worked well with food too. Perhaps their most interesting (and judging by surrounding tables) most popular beer, was LSD (Lompoc Strong Draft), which, in their own words, is:

A Portland Classic! This strong ale has a deep mahogany color and is crafted with seven different specialty malts. A touch of smoked malt gives it a complex aroma and incredible flavor. LSD is also generously hopped with six hop varieties to help create an awesome beer. 6.9% abv. 58 IBU


Somehow, the smokiness of the LSD gave it a tinge of esspresso flavor, which made it all the much more interesting.

Onward to dinner. Dinner was the second time in my life that I've been able to eat at a restaurant reviewed by Food and Wine Magazine (the first was a gourmet pizza place in Vancouver BC). Pok Pok is a low-key little place on Division St. (also around Hawthorne), supposedly started by a guy grilling in his backyard. The kitchen looks like it might once have been a foodcart, and the restaurant itself is a hodge-podge which blurs the line between inside and outside. At one point in the evening, a sudden cloudburst spang itself on us, and we watched as customers and waitstaff alike made a mad dash between the "indoor" part and the "covered outdoor part" through a narrow passagway whose eavestroughs had been hopelessly overwhelmed.

Anyways, on to the food. We started with G&T's and fried papaya fritters across the street at Whiskey Soda Lounge, where we waited the supposed hour (actually much less) until our table was prepared. Then, we wandered over to Pok Pok. As soon as we sat down, the smells of the dishes passing by us told us this was a *can't go wrong* sort of place. We could probably have just told the waitress "you pick for us!" and it all would have worked out. Alas, the almost tropical weather convinced us to forgo the curries (which smelled awesome). Instead, we went with the grilled game hen, the La Vong fish (Dan's all-time favorite: pan-fried fish with tons of dill, and a bit of spice, served over noodles), an eggplant salad, and some sticky rice to sop it all up. It was all delicious. The game hen was juicy and moist, the eggplant salad (packed with herbs of all sorts) was bright and refreshing, and the fish was wonderful. Everything came with at least one, sometimes 2 sauces, which could be slathered over the sticky rice to make the flavors last even longer. We ended the meal with a totally decadent plate of sweet sticky rice, mango and condensed milk--which is a killer combo. Overall, a wonderful meal (and very reasonably priced). If you don't mind the wait (or if you have 5+ people so you can make a reservation in advance), I strongly recommend it. We had big plans to end the evening with one more Portland pint somewhere, but alas, it being Sunday night on the west coast, the two bars we tried had both already called last call by the time we wandered it at 11:30 pm (there are some parts of living out here that I will never get used to. Early bar closures on holiday weekends is one of them).

Besides running a few errands (returning bikes, buying beer etc.) We didn't do too much on Monday, as we wanted to get out in time to beat the traffic (or some of it at least). We did find time to wait the 1/2 hour for a famous Voodoo Doughnut. Dan tried cinnamon and I tried the classic old-fashioned. We decided we must not be doughnut-connaiseurs, because to us, both doughnuts tasted only marginally better, and a tad fresher, than the infamous Timbits we knew so well. Finally, on the way out of town, we hit the FoodCarts and loaded up on cheap Banh Mi (2 for $6) for the trip home, and lunch the next day. The Banh Mi, while not Montreal quality, were head and shoulders above Seattle Banh Mi in that their BBQ Pork was actually sliced thin, like cold cuts, and did require the gnawing and gnashing of teeth involved in eating a Seattle Banh Mi--oh and they had a magic sauce of some sort, and peppers, and pickled veggies.

A whirlwind tour of Portland, and I have no doubts we missed several gems, but at least we got there, and it certainly wouldn't take much convincing to get me to go back again.